Join us for a two-day Blues Dance workshop focused entirely on Piedmont Blues with nationally and internationally renown instructors Grey Armstrong, Heidi Fite, Jen Delk, and Gwen Bone!!!
We'll be exploring Blues dance aesthetics and partnership dynamics, while developing your personal style and creativity on the dance floor.
There are two tracks: Beginner requiring no prior dance experience, and Intermediate for those of you who are more familiar with Piedmont Blues. We highly recommend taking the beginner track if you're a regular partner dancer but this is your first encounter with Piedmont Blues.
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Outline
Schedule
What is Piedmont Blues?
Demo Videos
Cost
Covid Precautions
Beginner vs Intermediate
Social Dance Opportunities
About the Instructors
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𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞
Saturday
12-1pm: Combined class
1-2pm: Classes Split by levels
2-2:30pm: Break
2:30-3:30pm: Classes Split by levels
3:30-4pm: Combined Practice Session
Saturday
12-2pm: Classes Split by levels
2-2:30pm: Break
2:30-3:30pm: Combined Class
3:30-4pm: Combined Practice Session
Doors Open 11:30am and close promptly at 12:10pm.
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𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐏𝐢𝐞𝐝𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐬?
Piedmont blues comes from the “Piedmont” region foothills stretching from Virginia through the Carolinas into Georgia. Dancers in those communities developed social dances to accompany the guitar-driven, ragtime-influenced, syncopated music that the region became well known for. Piedmont blues dancing isn’t a single codified form, but rather a collection of local dances that shared similar rhythmic features tied to Piedmont blues music. Like many blues dances, it grew out of the local community and flourished at house parties, jook joints, backyards and front porches, often with very few musicians rather than full bands and in very small spaces.
Piedmont blues dancing can be done in solo or with a partner, but even the partnered versions give a very light nod to the partnership and leave a lot of room for solo interpretation and independent movement. Partnered Piedmont blues dancing often includes a relaxed open embrace, sometimes side-by-side, where both dancers can show off rhythmic variation and practice call and response. It often incorporates steps drawn from cakewalk, early jazz, or buck dancing. It emphasizes a lot of footwork-driven movement, with shuffles, slides, taps, and syncopated triple steps to echo the “fingerpicking” quality of the guitar music.
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𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨 𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨𝐬
Heidi Fite and Christi Jay Wells, Damon Stone and Mike Legenthal: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx11oG7H5gZ7aIds86gKQg3eBR4TIhq9XQ
Jen Delk solo dancing to Piedmont Blues:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DOow6yEkTVx/
[More Coming Soon!]
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𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭
$100-140 sliding scale pre-registered, $140 Cash at door.
$140 cash at the door for the weekend
$60 for Saturday Only pre-registered (No drop-ins on Sunday). $80 Cash at door Saturday-only.
If cost is an issue, please reach out at
aW5mbyB8IGJheXNob3JlYmx1ZXMgISBjb20= before December 1st (No one turned away for lack of funds!)
[No. Seriously, if there's any hesitation at all, please reach out!]
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𝐂𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬:
KN95, KF94, N95 or higher rated masks required (well fitting, no vents) for full duration of the workshop. We will not be checking vaccination record, but we highly encourage you have your booster shots. If you feel sick or like you might be getting sick, please do not attend. If you have had COVID recently, do not attend unless you are testing negative and 10 days have passed since your first symptoms or positive test. If you cannot attend, please reach out and we'd be more than happy to offer you a full refund upon request. We also encourage you to take a test prior to showing up to class if you do feel well just to double check, but tests are not required as efficacy is not as high of a spread prevention method as masking up.
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𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐮𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫?
We'll be learning the same moves and concepts, so you can't go wrong! It just depends on your learning style and where you are in your dance journey for this particular dance. We highly recommend taking the beginner track if you've done partner dancing before but this is your first encounter with Piedmont Blues (even if you're a seasoned blues dancer!)
Beginner track will focus on learning the dance and getting as much practice in as possible. We'll touch on technique, but the focus is to get as many reps in as possible. Think of it as building the rough draft of "What is this dance supposed to look and feel like?"
Intermediate Track will focus on the finer details and techniques. If you want to know the exact angle your elbow needs to be at to stretch out that lag maybe 20% more than you're already doing to push the edge of creative possibility, this is the track for you. You will likely listen and discuss more while dancing a bit less.
You'll get plenty of time with all of our instructors and we'll have integration sessions between the two levels because when you're on the dance floor we want you to have the skills to dance with everyone you encounter!
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𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭??
Workshop does not include any socials, BUT this specific weekend just happens to be full of incredible local events!
𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: Live Blues Music at the Starry Plough.
- Cover: $12-15. Taster lesson at 7pm, Music 8-11pm
- 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705
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https://thestarryplough.com/event/blues-night-13/the-starry-plough-pub/
𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆: Blue Light Lounge
- Cover $20. $15 if bought in advance
- 1751 Sacramento St, San Francisco, CA 94109, USA
- All Levels drop-in @ 7pm
- DJ'd Music 8-12:30am
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https://the-blue-light-lounge.square.site/
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𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐲 𝐀𝐫𝐦𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠
Grey is a highly sought after international teacher who is proud to share his culture and love of dance with the world. Going from regular panic attacks after class to where he is today, Grey’s dance journey has been anything but straight forward. Bringing opportunities for growth and confidence building Grey’s loves to help dancers find their style within the foundations. He is known for innovative classes, deep cultural context, and an intuitive learning style. By challenging students physically, intellectually, and emotionally Grey leaves students with a feeling they have been changed beyond just dance.
Grey loves to follow, help dancers find their voice, and finding new music. You can find him dancing a variety of styles and yet, he returns to blues again and again.
He is also an artist, writer, and educator whose work focuses on unpacking unconscious bias, cross-cultural communication, and most importantly… compassion. As a minority lottery winner, he realized quickly that if the world was going to understand people like him, he’d need to be the one to explain it. Through events across the world, a blog with world wide readership, and an ability to bring hard topics back down to earth, Grey is always striving towards creating an impact and understanding. If his audiences learn something about themselves along the way, even better!
See his work here:
https://linktr.ee/greydiants
𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐝𝐢 𝐅𝐢𝐭𝐞
Heidi began dancing and teaching Blues dances in St. Louis, MO in 1999 and has been dancing, teaching and performing ever since. An early promoter of Blues dancing, she founded the first national Blues dance workshop (Cheap Thrills), which later transformed into the nation's largest Blues dance competition weekend (bluesSHOUT!).
Heidi continues to travel the world teaching Blues dance as a living tradition, with a rich history and an exciting future. From local classes to international workshops and historical research and documentation of the dance, she is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Blues dancing.
Her classes are inspiring and challenging, but Heidi's focus on the underlying principles and fundamentals of the dance allows her to break down the most difficult concepts and moves, making them easy to understand and incorporate. Heidi is able to communicate and instill in her students a love of dance and a dedication to the learning process. Her classes will put some serious 'boom boom boom' and 'aw haw haw haw' in your dancing.
𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐉𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐤
Follower, leader, organizer, student, teacher, music nerd (actually everything nerd). Jen started teaching dance in college to afford the habit. She refused to believe there was one way to break something down. Her curiosity about how things worked as a child taught her that if you try hard enough you can break something and if you try harder you might be able to put it back together making it better than before.
In the classroom Jen often draws on her own journey to find grounding, a voice, and a better connection with the music as a lead and follow. It’s been a long journey, it’s definitely not over, and she will gladly share what she has learned along the way.
Jen lives in Denver, and when she isn’t scheming about future dance related projects ,she is probably at home jumping on her trampoline or hanging out with her chickens.
𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐆𝐰𝐞𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐞
Gwen has been Blues dancing for over a decade with home scenes in Boston, Madison, New York City, and, currently, San Francisco. She grew up in a variety of dance and movement traditions and is passionate about crafting partnership and blues music. She loves to explore ways to find rhythm and space for personal voice in her dance. Her dance voice and approach to practice has led to national acclaim at BluesShout, Blues Muse, Signifying Blues, Lindy Focus, Sweet Molasses Blues, Northstar Blues, and more. As a teacher, she encourages dancers to explore the partnership space, their authentic movement, and find joy in movement.
Also check out other Workshops in Oakland, Entertainment events in Oakland, Music events in Oakland.
